Eugene Richards: The Run-On of Time

This retrospective exhibition features the work of Eugene Richards (American, born 1944), one of the most respected documentary photographers working today. For almost 50 years, working in the tradition of W. Eugene Smith and Robert Frank, Richards has focused on the diverse, often complex lives of Americans, as well as the ongoing struggles of the world’s poor.

Richards’s style is unflinching, yet poetic. He brings the lives of ordinary people into focus and tells their stories through his powerful photographs. His projects have explored such complicated terrain as poverty, emergency medicine, drug addiction, cancer, mental illness, the impact of war on veterans and their families, caring for the elderly, and the emptying of the American prairie. Ultimately, Richards’s socially-committed photographs illuminate personal struggles that might otherwise go unnoticed, with the hope that his art might spark conversations about how better to care for one another as human beings.

This exhibition is co-organized by The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York. In Kansas City, the exhibition is supported by the Hall Family Foundation and the Campbell-Calvin Fund.

Exhibition Resources and Programs

Hear new perspectives During your visit, use the Detour app to hear insights from Richards, the curator, and community members with expertise and experience in the exhibition’s subjects. Don’t have an iPhone or iPod Touch? Forgot headphones? Free checkout devices and complimentary earbuds are available at the Info Desk.

Library Resource

The Spencer Art Reference Library has compiled a bibliography of titles that explore Richards’ career’s work through individual photobooks as well as the retrospective exhibition catalog, Eugene Richards: The Run-On of Time.